Dusty Baker announced part of his coaching staff today, saying that he's going to be keeping Brook Jacoby (hitting coach), Billy Hatcher (first base coach), Mark Berry (third base coach), and Dick Pole (blogger punchline, pitching coach) from the Jerry Narron/Pete Mackanin staff. While it's mildly interesting that Dusty is keeping so many guys from the old regime around, I thought this quote was the most interesting: "I read where Adam Dunn said he had four hitting coaches in four years or something like that," Baker said. "That's not what you want. It takes time to get trust. In today's society, young people distrust authority. You have to build trust. You can't change coaches every year."It's interesting in that he actually mentions Adam Dunn by name because first off, the Reds have yet to officially pick up Dunn's option, and secondly, people have been wondering how well Dusty will get along with Dunn, who doesn't exactly fit the mold of players Baker likes to manage. Still, by mentioning Dunn specifically, I think it's kind of Dusty's way of showing he's on Dunn's side, for now at least.
And while we're at it, there's still no word on whether Pete Mackanin will be offered a coaching spot or if he'll have to try and find a job elsewhere. Whether you like the hiring of Dusty or not, I think we can all agree that the Reds could've handled the Mackanin situation a lot better than they did.
